


From a Cold Land

by TheGreatCatsby



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Zankyou no Terror AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 03:56:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5076847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatCatsby/pseuds/TheGreatCatsby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akane is given a choice by a terrorist that isn't really a choice at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From a Cold Land

**Author's Note:**

> That's right! Zankyou no Terror AU. So um...it's gonna be sad. I'm sorry.

The bomb should kill her. 

Akane stays inside the building, trying to evacuate everyone. She'd arrived first at the scene, a power outage, and something felt wrong. There were officers outside, but she went in, trying to find out what happened. 

As she's climbing down the stairs, one of the officers calls her on the radio, asking her where she is and why she hasn't come out. It's the only noise in the stairwell. Then she rounds a corner and comes face-to-face with a man. 

“We've evacuated the building,” she tells him. 

And the man smirks at her. “Then why are you still here?” 

“I'm making sure the building is clear,” she says, flashing her badge. 

The man's eyebrows shoot up, disappearing under messy black hair. “Good work. But everyone cleared out a long time ago. So what are you still doing here, really?” 

Akane bristles. “I'm investigating the source of the power cut.” 

And then it hits her. Most likely, she's looking right at the source. 

“You don't have long,” the man tells her, smirk disappearing. “This building isn't safe. There's a bomb.” 

“What?” 

“So either leave, or die. Those are your choices.” 

Akane stares at him. He pushes past her to run up the stairs and she spins around. “Wait! I can't just let you go. Disable the bomb!” 

“It's a bit late for that,” the man says, pausing. “I'm not working alone.” 

“Won't you die if you stay here?” 

“No. But you will.” He starts running again. 

Akane feels dizzy. Cold. There's no reason for her to believe him, but her instinct is telling her that he isn't lying. 

So, in a daze, she runs down the stairs, runs outside, breathless, to join the crowd of people gathered across the road. She bends over to catch her breath. 

And as soon as she does, an explosion rips through the building behind her. 

The force of it nearly knocks her over. People scream and start running. She stumbles forward, pushed by a gust of hot air, and spins around to see flames blocking out the sky. Only for a moment. Because the building starts to fall. 

It's only then that she runs. 

Two days later, the police station explodes. 

* 

“I saw his face.” 

Chief Kasei, the head of the Public Safety Bureau, had thrown out her report that morning. And now her partner doesn't believe her. 

“There are scanners everywhere. If a terrorist was around, we would've been alerted to their high crime coefficient,” Shimotsuki tells her. “The likelihood of you coming face to face with him and being kept alive is minimal.” 

“But no one died,” Akane says. “Maybe that's influencing his crime coefficient.” 

“And you think he's working alone? Terrorists usually work in groups.” 

That's a good point, Akane thinks. He had mentioned not working alone. But she hadn't seen anyone else. 

“Besides, if you really saw the person responsible,” Shimotsuki says, “they wouldn't just be letting you walk around.” 

Which is an even better point, and Akane isn't sure why she's been allowed to return to her job. 

It's a problem that carries her through to the end of her shift. It bothers her when she's walking towards her apartment in the dark quiet streets, wondering if her instincts were all wrong. But there's no reason a random man should have lied to her like that. And no matter who he was, he knew that the bomb was going to go off. 

A pair of hands drag her back, pulling her off her feet, one covering her mouth and cutting off her scream. She tries to fight, tries to wrench herself out of the grip, but the hands are strong. And suddenly, everything goes dark. 

*

“I don't think this is a good idea. Even if she saw you, and even if that helps the investigation, she still didn't have your name, your age, your crime coefficient. Why would you bring her here? Now she knows where we live.” 

“But she's an insider. We can use that. We have leverage now. You hacked her dominator.” 

“We had leverage before. Or are explosives not considered leverage anymore?” 

Akane's head hurts. 

“It was thoughtless of you to talk to her in the first place.” 

“I know. But...she's the only police officer I've ever met who hasn't pointed a dominator at me first thing.” 

“Well great. That's great.” 

Akane opens her eyes. 

She's in a dark room. It's still night, but the sofa she's laying on isn't hers. The coffee table directly in front of her is unfamiliar. And there are two tall figures framed by the floor-to-ceiling window. The outline of one looks familiar. Messy hair. 

She struggles to sit up, fighting dizziness. 

The familiar figure turns around. 

“You're awake.” 

The second figure, taller, thinner, also turns. Light reflects off his glasses, obscuring his eyes. 

“What's going on?” she asks, automatically reaching for her side. For her dominator. But it isn't there. 

“We took away your gun and your communication device,” the familiar man says. “They got destroyed when Gino hacked them. Sorry. It occurred to me that you might be a risk.” 

“You left me alone for two days...and then decided I might be a risk?” 

“He's not that smart,” the other man mutters. 

“I looked you up,” the familiar man says. “Tsunemori Akane, one of the youngest detectives in the whole of Tokyo's Public Safety Bureau. The youngest, until last year. It would've been smart of you to apprehend me when you first met me.”

Akane swings her legs over the edge of the sofa. “Who are you?” 

“Don't--” the other man says, but the familiar man cuts across him, “I'm Kougami Shinya. This is my friend, Ginoza Nobuchika. And we're the terrorists you're looking for.” 

“Why would you tell me that?” Akane asks. She wonders if they're going to kill her now. If they just needed someone to brag to and then dispose of. 

“Yes, why are you telling her that?” Ginoza hisses. 

“I was looking at your cases,” Kougami says, “and the way you handle them is a bit outside the standard. I was curious. It seems like you don't completely depend on the Sibyl System to carry out justice for you. Even at the risk of alienating your co-workers, you will try more often than not to rehabilitate criminals rather than simply lock them up, or kill them.” 

Akane stares at him. 

“So,” Kougami continues, “I thought, maybe she's exactly the sort of person we need on our side.” 

“On your side?” Akane repeats, stunned. 

“You don't think the system is entirely fair,” Kougami says. “And neither do we. And we need people to realize that.” 

“By setting off bombs everywhere?” Akane asks. “I'm sorry, but I can't help you.” 

Kougami gives her a sharp smile. “Back when we first met, you had a choice. Chase me and die, or evacuate the building and live. This is a similar choice. We can track you. We know everything about you. So you can stay with us and live, or try to escape and die.” 

“Is that really a choice?” Akane asks. 

Ginoza turns away from both her and Kougami, shaking his head. 

“Are you willing to die for your brand of justice?” Kougami asks her. 

Akane looks away. She feels strangely vulnerable, without her dominator or communication device. But she also doesn't feel as helpless as she should. Because she didn't depend on either of those things to do her job, before. 

And maybe, if she stays with them, she can turn this around to her advantage. She can find a way to bring them in. 

“Fine,” she says. “I'll stay.” 

* 

Kougami doesn't trust her. Not entirely. 

The doors are locked with combinations that Akane can't even begin to guess. The apartment she's in is too high to escape through the window or the balcony. They're as isolated as they can be in a city. She has to admit that she's somewhat impressed. 

And she has no idea what they're actually doing. 

Ginoza seems to work with computers and strange devices full of wires, attached to phones. Bombs, she guesses, but he's also doing other things on his computer that don't make sense. He doesn't talk much. Not to Kougami, not to her. She has the feeling that he's angry at Kougami, because of her. 

And Kougami goes in and out during her first day. Leaving her alone with him. 

At some point she gets tired of exploring the apartment. She finds a lot of books. A lot of science fiction. But aside from that, not many possessions. She thinks about trying to make herself food, because she's hungry and Ginoza doesn't seem inclined to stop whatever he's doing to think about meals. So she raids their kitchen. 

There isn't much in there, either, but she finds some noodles and starts making a quick stir-fry. It's one of the few things she can make, and she ends up with just enough for the three of them. 

She makes herself a bowl, and carries one over to Ginoza, placing it on his desk. He starts, glances up at her, frowning. 

“I thought you might be hungry,” she says. “I was.” 

Ginoza looks from her to the bowl. “Are you trying to gain my trust?” 

“No,” Akane says. “I was just hungry. And bored.” She pulls up a chair and sits next to him. She notices how his shoulders tense. “What are you doing?” 

“Nothing.” 

“You've been doing nothing for hours.” 

Ginoza makes a noise of annoyance. 

“Planning another attack?” Akane prompts. “What is your goal, anyway?” 

Ginoza shakes his head. 

The front door slams open and Kougami's voice rings through the apartment. “I'm home! Mission accomplished. Gino, everything good on your side?” 

Ginoza pushes away from the desk, standing up. “Yes. No one saw you?” 

“Nope.” 

Akane watches as Ginoza heads outside to the balcony. Kougami takes his seat, raises his eyebrows at the bowl of noodles. 

“For me?” 

“Sure,” Akane says. She's almost done with hers. “You and Ginoza didn't agree about bringing me in, did you?” 

“Nope. But he'll come around. He's just worried.” 

“About what? Getting caught?” 

Kougami shrugs. “He's always worried.” He takes the bowl of noodles that was supposed to be for Ginoza and starts to eat like a starving man. “These are alright.” 

“Ginoza wouldn't tell me why you're doing this,” Akane says. 

“He's smart,” Kougami says. “I'm not going to, either. You're a detective. Figure it out.” 

“What's the point of having me here if you're going to make me figure it out?” 

“Well, if I just told you, you might not believe me,” Kougami says. “Detectives need evidence, don't they?” 

Akane swallows the last of her noodles and sets the bowl aside. That's true. 

But that also means that Kougami wants her to believe something. That Kougami hasn't taken her to brag about his plans. 

And that, she finds intriguing. 

* 

That night, both Kougami and Ginoza disappear. 

Akane waits for them, checking the news online on a restricted phone Kougami had given her before they'd left. “You'll want to see this,” he'd said. 

What she had seen were reports of an explosion at a train station in the center of Tokyo. No deaths, but quite a few injuries. 

A few hours later, the door slams open, and Kougami staggers over to the couch, collapses. 

They're both covered in soot. 

Ginoza heads to the bathroom, comes back with an armful of first aid supplies. Kougami waves him off. “Go do what you need to do. I'll be fine.” 

“You were in an explosion,” Ginoza snaps. “You're not fine.” 

“And this is more important. We can't let them bury this. Get to the files before they delete them.” 

“What's going on?” Akane asks, rising from the couch. She takes the supplies from Ginoza, who looks startled. She notices his hands are shaking, and he curls them into fists. “I'll take care of this.” 

Ginoza makes a frustrated noise and stalks over to his computer. 

“That bomb wasn't supposed to go off,” Kougami says, lifting up his shirt. 

There's a gash on his stomach. Some burns. Akane begins to clean the wounds. “What happened?” 

“We tried to shut it off,” Kougami says. “But we got there too late. Someone was messing with our tracking system.” 

“You still put a bomb in a train car,” Akane points out, scrubbing at the edges of the wound a bit harder than necessary, making Kougami wince. “If you really didn't want it to go off, you would've put something inactive in there.” 

“That's not the point,” Kougami says. 

“What is the point?” 

“You'll see in a few minutes.” 

Akane bandages Kougami's wounds. She wonders how her division is dealing with this. Shimotsuki has only had a few months on the job. She's probably overwhelmed. And they're probably divided between the terrorist case and trying to find Akane. 

Akane feels a bit guilty about that. 

And then her phone goes off. 

“Done,” Ginoza says, pushing back from his desk. “I'm going to bed. Don't bother me.” 

Their beds are in the same room, but there's something very final about the way that Ginoza buries himself under his blankets that makes Akane not want to bother him. 

Instead, she sits on the couch next to Kougami, checks her phone. And her eyes go wide. “These are...files from the Public Safety Bureau.” 

“Yup,” Kougami says, tipping his head back and closing his eyes. 

Akane can't believe what she's reading. “About this case. About...this report should only be seen by the Chief. They knew about the bomb hours ago.” Her heart starts beating too fast. “So then why...” 

“They wanted the bomb to go off,” Kougami says, pushing himself upright. “I think I need some sleep, too.” 

And he leaves her there, with the report. 

It takes her a long time to fall asleep. 

* 

She wakes up to screaming. 

Maybe it's a product of a dream. But she gasps, sitting upright. The apartment is silent. For a moment. 

Then she hears shifting and Kougami's voice, low. “Are you okay?” 

More shifting. Ginoza's voice, strained, “Fine. Go back to sleep.” 

“Nightmares?” 

“I'm fine.” An edge to his words, now. 

“We're free now, you know,” Kougami murmurs. “You're not trapped. And soon everyone else will be free, too.” 

“Shinya.” Ginoza sighs, sounding bone-deep tired. “I know. Go back to sleep.” 

More shifting. Akane decides to look over. She sees Kougami settling back into bed. And she sees Ginoza, still sitting up, head bowed. Shivering. 

She has an urge to comfort him. 

But she doesn't. 

She still doesn't know what side she's on. 

* 

The next day Kougami goes out again, and Ginoza is on the balcony, smoking. Akane hasn't been outside in days, she hasn't talked to Ginoza that much, so she decides to join him. 

“You heard us last night,” Ginoza says. 

Akane leans against the railing and looks down to the road. There are very few cars. Fewer people. She shifts her gaze, and sees the city center in the distance. The tall towers. Smoke rising from several places, obscuring parts of the skyline. Like the city is at war. 

Ginoza is staring at it, too. 

“Do you agree with him?” Akane asks, softly. 

“He's all I have,” Ginoza says. The smoke from his cigarette drifts towards the clouds like the smoke drifting up from the city center. “And maybe he's right.” 

“About what?” 

“It must be hard for you to understand,” Ginoza says, not looking at her. “This is nothing new. We've been fighting for as long as I can remember, just the two of us. Only now, we've involved other people. You. Everyone in Tokyo.” 

Akane turns, studies him. He's taller than Kougami, thin, his hair hiding his eyes. Closed off and cold, she thinks. But the way he was last night, the worry he'd shown towards Kougami, was the most emotion Akane had seen from him. 

“You really care about him, don't you.” 

Ginoza's lips twitch. “Sometimes I wonder if I'm fighting with him or for him.” He sucks in a breath, turns his back on the city. “That was foolish. Forget I said it.” 

Akane can't, because she hadn't expected it. It tugs at something in her chest. She bites her lip. “What do you want from all this?” 

“Does it matter?” Ginoza drops the cigarette and crushes it under his shoe. “What I want is not what will happen.” He pushes away from the railing, from her, and heads inside. 

Akane turns back to the city. Wonders if Kougami is planting another bomb right now. Wonders what she should do about it. 

She feels stuck. She feels like she's watching the world fall apart from the outside. And there's nothing she can do about it. 

* 

“How does this end?” Akane asks that night. 

Kougami turns to her to answer. 

And everything shatters. 

* 

“Where is he?” 

“Does it matter?” 

Akane feels like she's made of smoke. Burnt and floating and unable to control where she goes. 

“Tell me!” 

She's never heard anger like that in her life. Anger laced with fear and desperation, raw and bleeding. 

“I wouldn't worry about that.” 

“What do you want?” 

“I want to see you make a choice, Ginoza.” 

Akane opens her eyes. It's dark, but she can make out a shape in front of her. Her chest feels oddly heavy. 

“I don't know where Kougami Shinya is. He escaped. Isn't that nice? He escaped and left you to fend for yourself. So I want you to tell me where he is. If you do, I'll disable the bombs.” 

“Wh-what?” 

“You can still escape. Leave her behind. But she'll die.” 

Ginoza curses. And then Akane feels hands pulling her up into a kneeling position, bracing her against a hard surface to keep her upright. Her vision focuses, and Ginoza's pale face is in front of her. His glasses are gone, and she notices his eyes are green. 

But he's not looking at her face. He's staring at her midsection. She follows his gaze down, and her throat closes up. 

There are sticks of dynamite and a timer encircling her torso. 

Suddenly she understands. 

“Who was that?” she asks. 

“Makishima,” Ginoza growls. “He...he's working for them. He wants to kill him. Kougami.” 

Akane takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. But she's shaking too hard. “Ginoza...you can leave me here.” 

“No.” Ginoza's hands are hovering over her, also shaking. “No. Kougami dragged you into this. You don't deserve this. I don't care if you turn us in after. He was such an idiot. Such an idiot.” 

“You should leave.” 

“No!” Ginoza slams his hand against the wall. 

For a moment they sit in a silence only broken by harsh breathing. 

And then Akane says, “You and Kougami were done wrong by the System. And he thought because of my unconventional methods as an inspector, that I would understand.” 

“Yes.” Ginoza takes a deep breath, takes one of the wires in his hands. “We needed someone who wasn't brain washed by the System, but had access to it. Well, he thought we did. I didn't want to drag anyone into it. Kougami is going to reveal the true nature of the System. And then shut it down.” 

Akane swallows. “What happened to you two?” 

Ginoza snaps a wire. Akane flinches. He reaches for another one. “We were forgotten. You're probably familiar with rehabilitation facilities for latent criminals.” 

Akane nods, trying to concentrate on his voice rather than what his hands are doing. 

“Kougami was an orphan who was flagged and put in one of those facilities early,” Ginoza continues. “There were a bunch of children like that, who the System thought if left alone would become detrimental to society. I was taken in because my mother had died and my father became a latent criminal. I wasn't actually a latent criminal at that stage, but there was no one to care for me, and it was thought at the time that a family member with a high crime coefficient would pass on that tendency to others.” 

Akane swallows. She didn't know this. 

“My crime coefficient did rise because of the isolation,” Ginoza says, his voice less steady now. “As did many. And the System wanted to make us useful, somehow. We were wasting space, children with no prospects and no one to care about us. Forgotten. So experiments were done on us. Trials for things that would raise crime coefficients and cloud hues, or lower them. Our minds became their playgrounds, and quite a few children died because of it.” He snaps another wire, exhales. “A few of us got to know each other. Makishima was one. Kougami and I didn't trust him. But he offered us a way out.” 

“And you got out,” Akane says. 

“We did,” Ginoza says. “But without him. For a while, we both felt guilty. But then Kougami started getting these messages about how we'd be taken back into the System. About how he would find us, because he too wanted to play with our minds and see what happened. He enjoyed what they were doing. Apparently, the System found a use for him, and he for it.” 

“That's horrible,” Akane murmurs. 

“Yes. I spent so much time trying to forget about what had been done to us,” Ginoza says. “And we were lucky. It didn't ruin us like it did some others. It didn't kill us. But I can't imagine going back. That isn't a life. I don't care if the System continues to exist. I don't want either of us to be trapped like that, experimented on like that, ever again.” 

“Why was the System experimenting on humans?” Akane asks. 

Ginoza raises his head, opens his mouth. 

Static interrupts him. Ginoza picks up a communication device that Akane hadn't realized he'd had, and a voice on the device speaks, the same one from before. “I hope you enjoyed being reminded of your past. I will tear Kougami Shinya's mind apart. But can you watch Tsunemori, an innocent in all this, be torn apart quite literally in his place?”

Ginoza flinches, clutching the device harder. 

“How much time do I have left?” Akane asks. “I can't see.” 

Ginoza swallows. “Four minutes.” 

“How many have you disabled?” 

“Three. Out of nine.” 

“You should go.” Akane tries to keep her voice steady, but her eyes are burning. Her chest hurts. “You should go. You're fighting for him. I can tell you care about him more than anything. Don't let this happen.” 

Ginoza stares at her, eyes wide, horrified. With shaking hands he reaches towards the wires again, but Akane swats his hand away. 

“Go.” 

Ginoza closes his eyes, grits his teeth. “No.” 

“What?” 

Ginoza jerks away from her, starts speaking into the communication device. “Makishima, I'm giving you everything I know about Kougami. How to track him, all of our hiding places, our passwords, everything.” 

“Wait-” Akane cries, but Ginoza keeps talking, and she doesn't understand what he's saying, but she does understand that he's condemning Kougami Shinya. To save her. 

He throws the communication device against the wall. Turns to Akane, pale, sick looking, eyes flickering towards the timer. 

“It stopped.” 

* 

Akane has never been inside Nona Tower, but they are in the depths of it now. Ginoza, Kougami, Makishima. And her. 

And in front of her, a network of brains. Human brains, pulled out of bodies and stitched together to form this system that judges right and wrong for them all. 

She'd expected to have to rescue Kougami, if they managed to reach him in time. She hadn't expected this. 

Makishima laughs at the shock on her face. 

“None of you will be leaving here,” he tells them, raising a dominator to rest against his chest. “Though I am fascinated by your determination. What did you think you would accomplish by revealing this to the world?” 

“It's not right,” Kougami snarls. “It's not true justice. It's an experiment on the human race.” 

“Even if it is,” Makishima says, “we can't let the experiment go to waste.” He takes a step forward. “The greatest minds are in this System. Minds whose crime coefficients are always low, whose hues are always clear.” 

“So they can do whatever they want,” Kougami snaps. 

“And everything they do is right,” Akane murmurs. 

Ginoza steps closer to Kougami, placing a hand on his arm, almost as if to stop him from lunging at Makishima. 

“How does it feel?” Makishima asks. “To know that everything you've done has been for nothing.” He points his dominator at Akane. “You crime coefficient is still low. Fascinating. But irrelevant, now. We can't have you trying to put a stop to this.” The dominator changes shape, to lethal eliminator. 

“No!” Kougami shouts, jerking forward. 

A bright light engulfs Makishima. And he bursts into red mist. 

Kougami stumbles, falls to his knees. Akane can feel herself shaking. But she's alive. Makishima is nothing but blood and body parts in front of her but she's alive. 

A figure steps out of the shadows, blocking the exit. 

Chief Kasei, her own dominator configured to kill. 

“The Sibyl System has determined that it would be more useful for you to live, Inspector Tsunemori,” she says. But her dominator hasn't changed back. 

“What-” Akane starts, but the Chief turns the gun on Ginoza, and fires before any of them can react. 

Ginoza becomes nothing, just like Makishima. His blood stains Kougami's skin. 

Kougami screams, a sound that tears straight through Akane, lodges itself in her head. 

And then, the dominator shoots him, too. 

And she's trapped in a room bathed in blood, the truth revealed. 

Alone, save for the System that, for some reason, has decided that she should live. That she should be left behind. 

*

No matter what the future holds, this is what she'll always remember: 

They're running. The city is a blur around them, and it's like gliding on air. Ginoza's cold hand grasping Akane's warm one as he pulls her forward, towards what, she doesn't know. 

But he believes, she can feel it, he believes wholeheartedly that he can save Kougami before it's too late. And because of that, she believes, too. 

They're rushing towards Nona Tower. 

She knows now that in its depths is the truth of the System that governs all of them. And perhaps, her death is waiting for her there, too. 

Ginoza holds onto her like a lifeline, and she doesn't let go, because in a way, he's her lifeline, too. He saved her. He believed that something about her was worth saving. He never wanted deaths. He just wanted to protect the people he loved. 

So she runs with him. Because this is the truth she needs to see. Something greater than the System, something beyond it, allowed to grow between two people despite a world that forgot them. 

And she hopes that it's enough.


End file.
